At one point during Parvkar Singh Dulai’s six-year legal battle to get off Canada’s no-fly list, a federal court judge asked the B.C. man why he wouldn’t simply meet with Indian officials to say, “I’m not a terrorist.”
Dulai, an outspoken champion of an independent Sikh homeland, claimed an “elected Canadian official” had told him a sit-down with India’s national security advisor at the country’s consulate in Vancouver could make all his troubles go away.
It was a prospect Dulai — who was born and raised in Surrey, B.C. — said he found chilling.
“I mean, our system is being manipulated by Indian officials for anyone that is speaking out against India,” he told judge Simon Noël.
“And me being a Canadian in Canada, being a champion of human rights, of freedom of speech, I don’t think I should have to meet a foreign official to settle issues in Canada … That scares me.”
Listing based on flimsy evidence, men say
Dulai and fellow Sikh activist Bhagat Singh Brar have been unable to fly since 2018. The two men are now taking their fight with Canada’s public safety minister to the country’s top court.
Dulai and Brar — who are also business partners — want the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn a decision made under the Secure Air Travel Act after the minister decided there were “reasonable grounds to suspect” they would travel by air to commit a terrorist offence.
This story was originally published in cbc.ca. Read the full story here.